Duels of the Jungle! (LAoPtS)
Plot The episode starts off with Ash and his friends walking through the woods, with Aipom and Pikachu walking outside of their Poké Balls. Ash is ready and raring to go to battle Brandon of the Battle Pyramid, despite the long walk to get there. Finally, after a long while in the woods, Ash and the others make it out into a field. Everyone decides to take a rest while Aipom and Pikachu run off to play. Aipom, interested in the flowers, wanders off and gets lost, coming face-to-face with a wild Weavile. Weavile challenges Aipom to a battle, starting with Shadow Ball; the explosion alerts the gang that Aipom is in trouble. Once the gang catches up with Aipom, May scans the Weavile with her Pokédex. Ash asks if the Weavile wants to battle, to which it replies with another Shadow Ball. The gang quickly moves out of harm's way, only to be attacked by another Shadow Ball. Ash angrily battles the Weavile, making Pikachu use Thunderbolt. Weavile dodges the attack swiftly, using yet another Shadow Ball. Pikachu attempts to dodge, but gets caught in the explosion. Aipom quickly covers for Pikachu, although Weavile dodges her Swift attack. Ash tells Aipom to use Double Team, followed by Swift. Still, Weavile is able to dodge and goes straight into a Shadow Ball attack, hurting Aipom and knocking her out. Looking up after helping Aipom, the group notices Weavile has disappeared. A man runs over to check if they are okay. Upon finding the injured Aipom, he leads the gang to his hut in the woods to let her recover. Meanwhile, Team Rocket are busy eating rice balls, watching the whole thing. Meowth says it would be best if they stayed away from the Weavile, but Jessie has other plans. While Meowth begins to cook up another reason to give it to the Boss, Jessie reveals she wants the Weavile all to herself. Angered, Meowth goes to fight the Weavile on his own. The episode switches to a small cabin in the woods. The man from earlier introduces himself as Kerrigan, part of the Wilderness Guard Corps. He's the one that watches over the forest. After the gang introduces themselves, they inquire about the Weavile. Kerrigan says the Weavile is a stray and that there is a gang of both Weavile and Sneasel. He claims that Weavile had left the group and now challenges random Trainers to battle it. Kerrigan decides it would be best if he went outside and searched around. The gang decides to tag along, leaving Aipom to rest after her harsh battle. The episode switches to the stray Weavile. It begins to have a flashback about it and a female Sneasel in the rain. It seemed to have come from a harsh battle, limping away. After the flashback, Weavile jumps down from the tree it was in and runs off. Meanwhile, the gang and Kerrigan are searching for Weavile. They come to a spot where Kerrigan says he has seen Weavile many times. When there are no Weavile in sight, Max gets an idea to use Pikachu to sniff it out. Pikachu sniffs the air and runs off with the gang right behind. Again, the scene switches back to the stray Weavile, looking in a river and watching its reflection. Meowth approaches it, dressed as a fellow Weavile. Jessie and James watch as Meowth talks to the Weavile. Weavile doesn't seem to buy that Meowth is a fellow Weavile at all, even smacking his hand away when Meowth wants to shake. Weavile threatens Meowth, leading to him running away nervously. Meowth says that the Weavile threatened to use Meowth as a target. Jessie, unsatisfied with Meowth's claims, angrily threatens to do worse to Meowth if he doesn't get out and talk to Weavile. Before Meowth can react, Ash and friends show up. Pikachu runs over to Weavile and begins to talk to it. Meowth translates for Jessie and James, saying that Pikachu asked what Weavile was doing, to which Weavile replied that it didn't need to answer that question. After that, Meowth couldn't follow. Jessie angrily stands up, yelling at Meowth and revealing their position to the gang. After their motto, Jessie throws herself at Weavile's feet. Soon, a Sneasel runs over, happy to see the stray Weavile. Meowth begins to translate their conversation. Weavile asks the Sneasel why she had followed it, to which Sneasel replies that she wasn't following the Weavile, she was escaping from the rogue Weavile that the stray Weavile had fought with for leadership. A flashback shows the fierce battle between the two Weavile and shows how the stray had got three scars on its cheek. Weavile had lost and that was why it became a stray. Weavile claimed that its motives behind attacking the random Trainers was to be big and tough and show everyone what its made of. The female Sneasel reveals she was sick of being pushed around by the rogue Weavile, which turned out to be extremely mean, so she ran away from the group. Immediately following the speech, the rogue Weavile shows up, with three other Weavile as backup. Sneasel cowers behind the stray Weavile, to which Jessie responds that the Weavile was hers. Weavile, angered by her, easily sends Team Rocket blasting off again with a Shadow Ball. With some encouraging words from Ash, the battle between the four Weavile and the stray Weavile ensued. The three Weavile attack first, but are in turn attacked by Pikachu. The rogue Weavile angrily attacks the stray, beginning a one-on-one battle with both Weavile running along the river bank. The rogue uses Shadow Ball which is easily dodged by the stray, who also uses Shadow Ball. The stray's Shadow Ball hits the water, splashing it up between the two. The rogue Weavile jumps through the water and tries to slash Weavile's face with its claws. Weavile is able to block the attack with its own claws and send the rogue Weavile flying into the water, following up with a Shadow Ball. Unfortunately, the other Weavile is able to escape, using Shadow Ball on the stray Weavile. The stray Weavile remembers its previous battle with the rogue Weavile and realizes it was planning on using the Shadow Ball as a distraction to slash at its face like before. Weavile dodged the Shadow Ball and is able to use its claws to throw the rogue away. Almost defeated, the rogue Weavile lands on the ground beside the riverbank. The stray jumps on top of it and thrusts its claws at it. The rogue braces itself, but no attack comes. Sparing the rogue Weavile, the stray had regains its place as the leader. Both the new leader and the rogue Weavile made a truce, with Sneasel's help. After thanking Ash, Weavile walks off in peace to go back to its group with Sneasel and the other Weavile. Ash and his friends head back to the cabin, finding a fully recovered Aipom. With their work done, the gang says goodbye to Kerrigan. Aipom happily runs on ahead, leading Ash to comment how "that Aipom's nuts". Everyone chases after Aipom, happily carrying on their journey to the Battle Pyramid.